The purpose of this introduction is to explain what sport psychology is, discuss the myths surrounding it, the potential benefits of sport psychology in rugby, and how to use this book effectively.
Psychology is concerned with the mind and the reasons why people think and act the way that they do. Sport psychology is concerned with the way that athletes think and behave whilst playing sport. The two primary goals of sport psychology are to (a) ensure the well-being of athletes whilst playing sport and (b) enhance their performance.
Many athletes, coaches, and sport commentators seem to misunderstand sport psychology, which often gives this discipline a negative reputation. This stigma is partly fueled by unqualified individuals who practise as sport psychologists and give the players whom they work with false expectations. Seeing a sport psychologist is not like having a magic wand waved in front of you. Sport psychologists don’t have any special powers! Reading this book will not transform you or your performance within seconds. This book offers techniques that, when practiced, will enable you to fulfil your potential during training and matches, in addition to enhancing your emotional well-being.
Some players or coaches view seeing a sport psychologist as a weakness. Yet rugby players spend many hours working on physical, technical, and tactical aspects of their game, so why should they not work on the mental side, too? After all, we have all seen players who perform very well in training but not in matches. So what stops a player from being good in training but not in matches? Physically, the athlete is the same player, so it could be the mental side of his or her game. Learning sport psychology skills will enable players to perform during the heat of the battle and even excel during matches.
Callard the PLAYER
We had just been awarded the penalty, just in the Scotland half. I knew the game was nearing the end, and I thought it could be the last chance to win it. I started to focus on the process and not the outcome. I had previously missed two kicks, and I knew why these had missed. I focused on getting a sweet swing, controlling the sequence, and a having a clear understanding of where I was aiming. I took my paces back from the ball, steadied myself, took a deep breath to calm myself down, centred my body, and focused on not being quick and striking the sweet spot. . . .The flags were raised, England’s hopes of grand slam lived on, and we won the match 15-14.
Negative thoughts, fear of failure, and concerns about what other players or coaches think are some of the factors that stop rugby players from performing at their best. The aim of this book is to teach you psychological techniques that you can use whilst playing, training, or preparing to play and train to help you maintain emotional well-being and perform at your best. In short, the benefits of sport psychology will be discussed.
This book has been written to give players and coaches of all levels an understanding and practical advice about how to do sport psychology yourself or, if you are a coach, to teach your players psychological techniques. The book is structured so that you do not have to read each chapter. You can look at the contents page and decide which chapters are most appropriate for you. For instance, if you think that you do not cope as well with stress as you could during matches, chapter 5 will be useful to you. If you struggle to control your temper, chapter 10 may be an interesting chapter for you to read. Additionally, blank training table templates dispersed throughout the book can be found at http://tinyurl.com/7cft58w.
As we said previously, sport psychology is not magic. We make no guarantees about the effects of this book on your performance. We do not claim that reading this book will improve your performance by 10 percent. But we do offer techniques and ideas that you can use based on our backgrounds of research, consultancy, playing, and coaching. You may even find ways of adapting the techniques that we have suggested, which is fine.
We hope that you find Focused for Rugby informative and practical, and we wish you every success in using some of the techniques that we have suggested.